It will be no mean ‘feet’ for diddi dance founder,

 

A professional dancer and businesswoman from Woolwich, South East London is attempting her biggest dancing challenge to date as she prepares to dance solo for 24 hours to raise money for disabled children.

Mum-of-two, Anne-Marie Martin, is a professional dancer and the Founder of diddi dance, a successful national franchise network of dancing activities for children with over 40 franchisees delivering fun dance classes to hundreds of children every week.

The music will start at 10am on Saturday 27^th June and Anne-Marie will keep her dancing feet moving until 10am on Sunday 28^th June, streaming the challenge live on social media the entire time, raising money for national children’s charity, Caudwell Children.

She said: “Normally at this time of year diddi dance and a whole host of other children’s activities would be fundraising for Caudwell Children as part of the annual Children’s Activities Week event, but sadly we have had to postpone the event this year due to COVID-19 so this is my way of still contributing to the amazing work the charity does.”

But dancing for 24 hours is no mean feat and Anne-Marie knows she’s got a long night ahead of her; “As a professional dancer I toured with shows, performed on pop videos and appeared on Top of the Pops so I’m used to long days and nights of dancing but never before have I had to keep going for a full 24 hours.”

“It will be in the wee small hours when my family are tucked up in bed and there’s not as many people on social media when I’ll have to really find the stage in my imagination and still perform like everyone I know is watching.”

To get her through the marathon dance, Anne-Marie is calling on friends, family and supporters to join her on social media to dance along or offer words on encouragement.

The dance will be streamed live on Facebook and Instagram

 You can donate via Justgiving here

The funds raised by Anne-Marie’s dancing challenge will be donated to Caudwell Children to support disabled children and families during the COVID19 crisis.

Chief Executive, Trudi Beswick, said: “Like most charities, Caudwell Children has witnessed a catastrophic impact on fundraising due to the cancellation of events like Children’s Activities Week, but we have been supporting disabled children for over 20 years and we are not going to stop now when they need us most.”

“Individual challenges like Anne-Marie’s are helping keep the charity going and enabling us to provide vital support to some of the country’s most vulnerable children, we can’t thank Anne-Marie and all of her supporters enough.”

 

Anne-Marie’s diddi dance danceathon challenge takes place at 10am on Saturday 27^th June, to support her fundraising visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/diddi-danceathon

 

To join in or show your support join her live on Facebook www.facebook.com/diddidance/ and Instagram www.instagram.com/diddidancecrew/

 

About Diddi Dance

At Diddi Dance we realise and encourage endless enthusiasm and energy in an action packed, full of fun 45-minute dance class.

Classes are suitable for both boys and girls when they are steady on their feet, so to see if your toddler will enjoy it why not contact your local diddi dance today to book a trial.

Parents and carers are encouraged to join in and share the enjoyment with their diddi dancer. Week after week you will soon see their confidence blossom. We do realise that some toddlers are more confident than others and this is why we offer a trial, so you can be confident it’s a class they’ll enjoy. Bookings are then taken in half term blocks instead of having to book for a whole term.

The classes were devised and started by Anne-Marie Martin, a professional dancer with over 20 years teaching experience. After running for over 10 years in London we now have 40 locations all across the UK with more opening up all the time.

About Caudwell Children Emergency Appeal

During this unprecedented period of national disruption and uncertainty, Caudwell Children has launched an emergency appeal for donations to help us support disabled children and families through the crisis.

Disabled children and their families are feeling isolated, fearful and confused and need our help more than ever. Yet, the increased burden placed on the NHS and social services by the coronavirus outbreak means that many services for disabled children will be adversely impacted for the foreseeable future.

 

Caudwell Children are committed to providing a lifeline to thousands of vulnerable disabled children and families at this challenging time.

How we’re responding to the crisis

*Providing families with assessments via videocalls or telephone to continue the Caudwell Children Autism Assessment Service

*Delivering ASDAN qualifications to children in their home with telephone and online support

*Delivering a short breaks service for children and families in the home with telephone and video link support

*Collaborating with partners to offer legal advice where needed

*Extending our telephone, email and online advisory service to families

*Producing home support/activity packs for children and families

*Continuing to support applications for much needed equipment

Continuing to adapt our services week by week throughout this period to ensure they meet the changing needs of beneficiaries

 

Caudwell Children’s Work

Supported over 50,000 disabled children since 2000

Provided life-changing support for children with 653 medical conditions

Transformed the lives of disabled children by providing the services, equipment, therapies and treatments they need

Please help disabled children and their families through this crisis.